Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet

Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet

Defining the brand mark. GEM is a collaboration between several organizations in the Goleta area

Client Story

The Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet (GEM) is a collaboration between the City of Goleta, the Goleta Valley Chamber and the University of California, Santa Barbara. GEM is recognized as a center of excellence for entrepreneurial technology development and growth for technology focused startups.

The old GEM website did little to convey GEM’s identity as an incubator for entrepreneurs and startups. In addition, the website lacked structural organization, aesthetic appeal, and Calls-to-Action for visitors. Playing such an important role in the Goleta and Santa Barbara startup community, GEM Executive Director Doug Lynch reached out to Tarfoot for help.

How We Helped

After sitting down with Doug Lynch, Director of GEM, we identified three GEM target groups — Entrepreneurs, Small Teams, and Co-Workers — and devised a strategy for connecting with each of these personas. This resulted in the creation of a homepage with language and calls-to-action geared towards entrepreneurs, small teams, and co-workers.

We began by creating a new logo and identity for GEM that tells the story of the three-part collaboration between the Goleta Chamber of Commerce, the City of Goleta, and UCSB. Each facet of the gem in the new logo represents a collaborator.

We repurposed existing content that was scattered throughout the old website and reorganize it into various pages on the new site, giving goletaentrepreneurs.com some much needed structure. Tarfoot integrated a calendar for events to help promote the GEM community mixers and mentor events.

The changes we made to GEM’s website have significantly increased website visits and have generated new business. It is now easy for Doug and the GEM team receive inquiries, create new events and post news to the GEM website.